Match 26 - DC United x Los Angeles Galaxy
August 26, 2006
RFK Stadium
Washington, D.C.- By Joseph Schoenbauer, Wednesday, August 30, 2006
DC United Blasted by a Donovan-Inspired LA Galaxy
24,159 DC United fans went all out for the occasion that marked Landon Donovan’s first return to Washington DC following his totally abysmal performance in the World Cup. Earlier in the week, the Washington Post’s Steven Goff interviewed Donovan and he declared essentially that there are more important things in life than becoming the best futbol player you can be. Not exactly what American soccer fans wants to hear from a player who was expected to be a leader of the national team for years to come.
Hence the signs in the crowd, displayed by the frenzied DC United fans, that played off of MasterCard’s famous commercials: “Match Tix: $100, Airfare: $1000, Landon in Germany: Worthless. Others of note read: “Donovan Under Alles” (Donovan under all, a play off of German words) and a play off of Adidas’s new promotional idea: “Landon +10 = Zero”.
With his back against the wall though, Landon Donovan tends to due something special, at least in MLS that is. Saturday night he did just that, inspiring LA to a 5-2 victory, tallying 2 goals and being involved in the 3 others, in what was DC United’s worst loss of the season, their first loss at RFK stadium, and the fifth straight league game where they failed to win.
The score line never quieted the DC United fans though, especially La Barra Brava, who were at their loudest throughout, incensed by Donovan’s antics following his goals, as well as former DC United players Chris Albright and Santino Quaranta, who both celebrated LA goals by running toward La Barra Brava and making gestures. Each of the three were greeted with chanting that should not be repeated in front of children, as well as several streamers at a time. The vocal chanting continued throughout the game.
And while the throwing of water bottles and streamers at the LA Galaxy players should always be condoned, the reactions of the fans proved once again that DC United’s fans are the most passionate in the league. As Peter Nowak put it, “Our fans were fantastic today, a full house.”
DC United had further reasons to be incensed other than the Galaxy goal celebrations though. On LA’s fourth goal, without the chance to see replays, Quavas Quirk looked to be well offside before crossing for Namoff to put the ball into his own net with pressure from Donovan.
The worst refereeing decision of the game though, and one that needs to be looked at again by MLS, is LA defender Ugo Ihemelu’s horrendously reckless tackle on Domenic Mediate in minute 75 that broke Mediate’s leg. The foul did not even warrant a yellow card from referee Mark Geiger, when it easily merited a red card and following suspension from the league. “The decisions, of the officials, I leave it for the MLS officials to see the game again. Domenic has a broken leg” was how Nowak left it, without addressing the issue any further.
Finally, Nowak reflected on the overall performance of his team, “I’m really glad this happened to us right now. It is like a cold shower for all of us. I think we made too many mistakes defensively…and we cannot have a positive result if we are going to play the way we did tonight. We have the whole week now to work on how we are going to play, because we cannot play like that…The first half we cannot just go out there and in 2 minutes give up 3 good chances for LA.
But as I said, this is a good [cold] shower for all of us and were [going to] be back to reality. If you don’t run, if you don’t scratch, if you don’t fight and defensively get you’re A-game, then you’re going to have trouble, especially right now going into a period when every game is important.”
DC United will have to bounce back soon to regain the form that made them look invincible in the first half of the season. There first opportunity will be this weekend in LA when they take on Chivas USA Sunday night at 19:00 hours eastern time.